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What 20 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Mercedes-benz GLA
These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.
1 of 20 complaints match · Transmission & drivetrain · clear filters
May 16, 2022Transmission & drivetrain
I was parked in a lot and turned the ignition on and selected "DRIVE" but when I started to pull away the vehicle went backwards instead of forwards (as though "REVERSE" had been selected). I switched back to PARK, then selected DRIVE again and the vehicle once again went backwards. I then turned the engine off altogether and restarted it and this seemed to clear up the problem as now the vehicle went forwards when in DRIVE. No damage, or injuries, but of course very concerning from a safety point of view which is why I am reporting this. Mercedes did check the vehicle out the next day and could not locate any problem.
NHTSA ODI 11464869
Working with the data? Download all 20 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 19, 2026
How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your
pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the
full 2021 Mercedes-benz GLA verdict →